Left 4 Dead

As revealed last week, two of video games' biggest zombie-centric franchises will be bumping uglies when crossover content for the PC versions of Resident Evil 6 and Left 4 Dead 2 hits in in two weeks. This video shows what it looks like when Coach, Nick, Ellis and Rochelle take on the BOWs of Capcom's global apocalypse, with Special Infected enemies from L4D2 popping in to mix things up. Remember this undead mash-up won't cost anything so look for it as an added option on April 5th.

Suddenly, the mother of all zombie apocalypses is about to happen. This just wound up in our inbox:

Capcom and Valve are pleased to announce the Resident Evil® 6 x Left 4 Dead 2 project. This crossover project between two of the interactive entertainment industry's most respected publishers will see characters from Left 4 Dead™ 2 featured exclusively in the forthcoming PC version of Resident Evil® 6, while enemies from Resident Evil 6 will invade the PC version of Left 4 Dead 2. All content will be made available completely free for fans of either game to access and play.

Owners of Resident Evil 6 PC will be able to select one of four survivors from Left 4 Dead 2's iconic cast – Coach, Nick, Ellis and Rochelle – when playing PC exclusive mode, The Mercenaries No Mercy. Each character will have a special customized weapon load-out created just for use in Resident Evil 6. In addition to the four survivors, two of the infamous Special Infected zombies from the Left 4 Dead franchise – the Witch and Mini Tank – will also make a cameo appearance in this mode, relentlessly attacking players regardless of whether a character from Left 4 Dead 2 or Resident Evil 6 is chosen. This new and exclusive content will automatically be downloaded in the background to all owners of the PC version of Resident Evil 6 from April 5.

Making the leap to the PC version of Left 4 Dead 2 will be some of Resident Evil 6's most fearsome enemies – Lepotitsa, Napad and Ogroman. All three characters were brought to life in Left 4 Dead 2 by Valve's renowned developers using its Steam Workshop tools. Owners of the PC version of Left 4 Dead 2 will be able to face a new deadly challenge when Resident Evil 6 characters infect Valve's classic zombie title this spring.

Commenting on the crossover project, Chet Faliszek from Valve stated: "We're huge Resident Evil fans, so when the opportunity arose to work directly with Capcom to combine L4D2 and RE6, we jumped at it."

Resident Evil 6 Producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi added: "The Resident Evil 6 team really enjoyed working on this crossover, and we're confident that our fans will have a great time with it too! We hope you enjoy this unique content."

Valve just recently moved Steam Workshop out of beta, and we're already seeing a ton of great mods ready for your clicking.

We've had access to mods before, that's nothing new. But Valve's Steam Workshop completely streamlines the process of adding them in, making the ability to have smarter AI, new weapons and newly skinned enemies an easier process than ever before. And databased, too!

So what's out there now, roughly four days after its official release? Here are a few that caught my eye.

Playing as friggin' velociraptors

A Crash Bandicoot map

Warrior Bug enemies

A super-sexy Coach in formal wear

Team Fortress 2's Scout as a Hunter

The Gabe Newell of Boomers

There are a ton of other maps, skins for the four playable characters, skins for enemies, heck, skins for the defibrillator and ammo packs. There are weapons, from melee and assault rifles to machine guns and grenades. There are menu tweaks and UI changes. New soundtracks and sound effects. Just a metric crapton of things you probably don't need but, hey, you can download now.

You may remember that, nearly four years ago, Australia's classification board refused to classify Left 4 Dead 2, effectively banning it from sale in the country. At the time, Australia's ratings system for video games topped out at MA15+, which basically means suitable for teenagers. Valve released a highly sanitized version of the game just for Australia, disappointing many and calling attention to the country's insufficient ratings policies.

Well, in the three-plus years since, Australia has gotten its act together. On Jan. 1, a new R18+ rating went into effect (Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edgewas the first to claim it.) Fans down under are wondering if Valve is keen to revisit the subject with a fully unedited Left 4 Dead 2. Writing on Valve's official forums, Chet Faliszek says yes.

"We have been exploring the options here and what we can legally do," he said.
"We will have more information on this when we understand the issues fully and how we are moving forward."

The game was submitted and refused, the decision was appealed, and the appeal was denied. It sounds like Valve isn't yet certain if Left 4 Dead 2 is eligible for a re-review under a new rating, or if an old decision is final no matter what.

Still, any expense of resubmitting Left 4 Dead 2 for classification "doesn't worry us," he added. "This is something we want to do."

Some people might tell you that Donkey Kong 64 is an awful game. According to 10 year old me (my age the last time I played that game), they'd be wrong. But, hopefully everyone can agree that the Donkey Kong rap is fantastic?

Now, take that catchy tune, and add the Left 4 Dead zombies. What do you get? This amazing thing by YouTube user EdbotnikThe's.

Halloween is on its way, and while ghosts and ghouls may have been the undead horrors of decades past, here in 2012 it's all about the zombies and their ilk.

What better way to get in the mood for spooky doom than with this weirdly lovely, thoroughly instructive image from Left 4 Dead 2? See zombie, apply flamethrower. Now that's useful advice for the ages.

Brothers Colin and Connor McGuire wanted a Left 4 Dead movie... so they made one.

The home project took them the better part of two years, including 3000 hours of editing. The final product is about the length of an "hour" long television show, clocking in around 40 minutes, and looks at least as good as several TV shows I've seen.

Eagle-eyed gamers watching the tricksy horror flick Cabin In The Woods might have noticed a cool shout-out to Valve's Left 4 Dead in a sequence in the third act of the movie.

Talking today in a Reddit IAmA, the film's director Drew Goddard said we almost got a lot more than that: If MGM hadn't gone bankrupt, we would've gotten a downloadable Left 4 Dead expansion pack based on the movie.

Cabin In The Woods Spoilers Follow.

Here's Goddard:

We actually were going to do a downloadable L4D2 expansion pack, where you'd fight in the Cabin world, but then MGM went bankrupt so the delay squashed it. But the people at Valve were still cool enough to let us use some of their monsters to fill the cubes in the background (I had a lot of cubes to fill.)

By the way — the game was gonna be amazing. You were gonna be able to play in both the upstairs "Cabin in the Woods" world and the downstairs "facility" world with all the monsters. Believe me, I HATE all video games based on movies, they always suck, but porting Cabin into Left For Dead felt like the right fit. It pains me that it didn't happen.

I already think that Cabin in the Woods had a lot of fun playing with video game tropes, so it hurts my heart that we almost got to take a four-player run not only through the cabin but through the monster-filled facility underneath. I wonder if there would have been a merman? Or if Sigourney Weaver would have been the final girl-boss?

You might have to wait for part 2 to see what this animator's vision on who would win this fight is, but I'm leaning towards the witch. Everyone knows once the witch has you down, there's no getting back up. You can't even fight from under her!